NASA Mulls Ethics Of Long-Duration Spaceflight (VIDEO)

NASA should set up a clear set of ethical rules regarding the health of astronauts on long-duration spaceflights — such as a trip to Mars — in the near future, according to a panel of health and ethics experts.

As it stands now, astronauts on a roundtrip mission to Mars would experience a level of radiation exposure that violate at least one of NASA's existing health limits, according to previous Mars mission studies. Such a trip to the Red Planet would expose astronauts to enough radiation to increase their lifetime risk of developing fatal cancer by more than 3 percent, a health limitation imposed by NASA.

While NASA should not relax its current health standards for long-duration space travel, the agency should consider developing ethics guidelines on when exceptions to those standards should be made for deep-space voyages, a report from the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine committee released on April 2. [The Human Body in Space: 6 Weird Facts]

Those exceptions could be vital for missions that send humans to Mars, an ultimate goal for NASA, or to send astronauts on ultra-long missions to the International Space Station. Currently, astronauts spend about six months on the space station. A NASA astronaut and Russian cosmonaut are due to fly a one-year trip to the station in 2015.

"From its inception, space exploration has pushed the boundaries [of human endurance] and risked the lives and health of astronauts," Jeffrey Kahn, chair of the IOM committee, said in a statement. "Determining where those boundaries lie and when to push the limits is complex. NASA will continue to face decisions as technologies improve, and longer and farther spaceflights become feasible. Our report builds upon NASA's work and compiles the ethics principles and decision-making framework that should be an integral part of discussions and decisions regarding health standards for long-duration and exploration spaceflight."

Some of the risks astronauts face during long-term spaceflights include vision impairment, heightened cancer risk due to radiation exposure and bone loss from the microgravity environment, the report said. There may also be risks that are "unforeseeable" before the mission begins, the report added.

The first step in this ethical framework should be deciding if a long-term space mission's value is worth the potential risk to the astronauts performing it. If a mission is considered "ethically acceptable," then NASA officials should develop a system for granting the exception. The IOM report does not comment on the value of specific missions.

According to results from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, a 180-day flight to the Red Planet followed by a 600-day stay on Mars and a 180-day flight back to Earth would expose astronauts to about 1.01 sieverts (radiation units). Some researchers consider that level of radiation manageable, however, it would violate NASA's current standard that caps the excess cancer risk for a given astronaut at 3 percent.

These ethical principles should help guide mission decisions, according to a statement from the IOM. The principles from the IOM were detailed as follows in a statement:

Recognize fidelity and the individual sacrifices made for the benefit of society, as well as honor societal obligations in return, by offering health care and protection for astronauts during missions and over the course of their lifetimes.

"Astronauts put their lives and health at great risk for their country and humankind," Kahn said. "Our report builds on NASA’s work and confirms the ethical imperative to protect astronauts' health, while fulfilling the agency's mission of exploration."

NASA should also inform astronauts of the known risks of a long-duration mission every step of the way — before launch, during the mission and after the astronauts return to Earth, IOM officials said in the report.

NASA funded the IOM report. You can obtain a copy of the full report, "Health Standards for Long-Duration and Exploration Spaceflight: Ethics Principles, Responsibilities and Decision Framework," here: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18576

Copyright 2014 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ]]>

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October 4, 1957
Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 launched as the first man-made object to orbit Earth, ushering in the "space race" between the Soviet Union and the U.S.

November 3, 1957
Laika ("Barker" in English), a stray dog from Moscow, became the first living being to orbit Earth when she launched aboard Sputnik 2. She died from overheating within hours of the launch.

January 31, 1961
While other monkeys had flown in space, Ham the "astrochimp" made history as the first chimpanzee in space. He pushed levers, showing that tasks could be conducted in space.

April 12, 1961
Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, became the first human ever to journey into space, completing a full Earth orbit aboard the Vostok 1.

May 5, 1961
Alan Shepard, Jr. (1923-1998), naval aviator and NASA astronaut, became the first American to travel into space aboard the Freedom 7 capsule.

August 6, 1961
Gherman Titov (1935-2000), Soviet cosmonaut, became the youngest person ever in space at age 25 -- and still holds the record -- after his orbit around Earth aboard Vostok 2.

February 20, 1962
John Glenn (born 1921), pilot and astronaut, flew the Friendship 7 capsule, becoming the first American to orbit Earth.

June 16, 1963
Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937), Soviet cosmonaut, became the first woman in space, piloting Sputnik 6 for three days. During the mission she conducted experiments on herself to test the female body's reaction to spaceflight.

July 21, 1969
Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) uttered these famous words when he became the first human to step onto the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." He was joined soon afterward by Buzz Aldrin.

November 10, 1970 (launch)
November 17, 1970 (landing)
Lunokhod 1 launched to become the first unmanned rover to land on the moon, and the first robot to land on any celestial body.

April 19, 1971
Salyut 1 was launched by the Soviets to become the first manned outpost in orbit.

Launch: July 15, 1975
Docking: July 17, 1975
For the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts united their spaceships in the first joint U.S.-Soviet spaceflight, a symbolic gesture for ending the space race between the Cold War rivals.
Photo: Apollo General Tom Stafford, left; Soyuz Commander Alexei Leonov, right.

July 20, 1976
Viking 1 was the first spacecraft to successfully complete a soft landing on Mars. It was the first spacecraft to take photographs of the red planet, along with Viking 2.

July 23, 1980
Phạm Tuân (born 1947), a research cosmonaut in the joint USSR-Vietnamese Space program, became the first Asian in space on board Soyuz 37.

September 18, 1980
Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (born 1942) became the first Latino in space, launching aboard the Soyuz 38 as part of the Soviet Intercosmos program.

June 18, 1983
Sally Ride (1951-2012), physicist and astronaut, became the first woman in space on Challenger for the STS-7 mission. Ride also holds the record for being the youngest American in space at age 32.

August 30, 1983
Guion "Guy" Bluford, Jr. (born 1942), engineer and astronaut, flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger, making history as the first African-American in space.

February 7, 1984
Bruce McCandless II (born 1937), aviator and astronaut, became the first person to conduct an untethered space walk.

September 12, 1992
Mae Jemison (born 1956) lifted off in the space shuttle Endeavour to become the first African-American woman in space.

April 4, 1993
Ellen Ochoa (born 1958) boarded the space shuttle Discovery to become the first Latina to go to space. She since has become the first Hispanic and second female director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

April 28, 2001
Dennis Tito (born 1940), U.S. engineer and multimillionaire, became the first space tourist, spending almost eight days in orbit.

August 25, 2012
Voyager 1, which launched in 1977, became the first man-made object to leave our solar system and venture into interstellar space.

August 3, 2013
"Kirobo" was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to become the first robot astronaut.